Imperial Tula Arms Plant () is a Russian weapons manufacturer founded by

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Peter I of Russia Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V until 1696. From this year, ...

in 1712 in Tula,

Tula Oblast Tula Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an Oblasts of Russia, oblast) of Russia. It is geographically located in European Russia and is administratively part of the Central Federal District, covering an area of . It has a ...

as Tula Arsenal. Throughout its history, it has produced weapons for the Russian

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

. Its name was changed from Tula Arsenal to Tula Arms Plant during the

Soviet era The history of the Soviet Union (USSR) (1922–91) began with the ideals of the Russian Bolshevik Revolution and ended in dissolution amidst economic collapse and political disintegration. Established in 1922 following the Russian Civil War, ...

History of the plant

Historically, the plant produced a wide variety of sports weapons and arms for the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

18th century

In the 18th century, Tula Arms Plant was recognized as setting the standard for Russian Arms Production.

19th and early 20th century

Reconstructed in the 19th century Tula Arms Factory became one of the most prominent arms factories in Europe. In 1910 the factory started production of the

Maxim machine gun The Maxim gun is a Recoil operation, recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Maxim, Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first automatic firearm, fully automatic machine gun in the world. The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most ...

. In 1927 planning and design office was established in order to improve the work of all of the plant's designers, the result of which was the development of aircraft machine guns - PV-1 and

ShKAS The ShKAS (Shpitalny-Komaritski Aviatsionny Skorostrelny, Shpitalny-Komaritski rapid fire for aircraft; Russian: ШКАС - Шпитального-Комарицкого Авиационный Скорострельный) is a 7.62 mm calibre ...

. Between 1927 and 1938 the plant built the country's first spinning machines.

Importance during World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Axis countries invaded USSR as part of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

. By December 5, 1941, the German

2nd Panzer Division The 2nd Panzer Division (English: 2nd Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army, the Heer, during World War II. Created as one of the original three German tank divisions in 1935, it was stationed in Austria after the Anschluss ...

had advanced to within a few kilometers of Tula, forcing the Soviets to evacuate Tula Arms Plant. As a result, far fewer weapons were produced there than at other Soviet factories such as

Izhevsk Mechanical Plant Izhevsk Mechanical Plant (, ''Izhevsky Mekhanicheskiy Zavod'') or IZHMEKH (ИЖМЕХ) was a major firearms manufacturer founded in Izhevsk in 1942 for manufacturing small arms. In 2013, it merged with Izhmash to form Kalashnikov Concern. Hi ...

. In 1941-1945, working under the slogan "Everything for the front, everything for victory", Tula gunsmiths produced

Mosin–Nagant The Mosin–Nagant is a five-shot, Bolt action, bolt-action, Magazine (firearms), internal magazine–fed military rifle. Known officially as the 3-line rifle M1891, in Russia and the former Soviet Union as Mosin's rifle (, ISO 9: ) and inform ...

91/30 rifles,

SVT-40 The SVT-40 () is a Soviet semi-automatic battle rifle that saw widespread service during and after World War II. It was intended to be the new service rifle of the Soviet Red Army, but its production was disrupted by the German invasion in 19 ...

self-loading rifles,

ShVAK The ShVAK (, "Shpitalny-Vladimirov Aviation Large-calibre") was a 20 mm autocannon used by the Soviet Union during World War II. It was designed by Boris Shpitalniy and Semyon Vladimirov and entered production in 1936. ShVAK were installed in ma ...

aircraft guns, Nagant revolvers and Tokarev pistols.

Cold War

Tula was strategically important to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. Significant

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

deposits were situated relatively close to it and it had access to ample transportation routes like the

Upa River The Upa (, ) is a river in Tula Oblast, Russia, and one of the main tributaries of the Oka. The river is long, and has a drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, su ...

and many rail lines coming in and out of the city. In 1965 constructors N. I. Korovyakov and V.P. Ochneva created a reliable double-barreled over-and-under shotgun TOZ-34. During 1960s–1980s, the plant received an order for production of the world-famous Kalashnikov assault rifles (six variants), anti-tank guided missiles -

9M14 Malyutka The 9M14 Malyutka (; "Little one", NATO reporting name: AT-3 Sagger) is a manual command to line of sight (MCLOS) wire-guided anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system developed in the Soviet Union. It was the first man-portable anti-tank guided mi ...

9M133 Kornet The 9M133 Kornet (; "Cornet (rank), Cornet", NATO reporting name AT-14 Spriggan, export designation Kornet-E) is a Military of Russia, Russian man-portable anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) intended for use against main battle ...

9M113 Konkurs The 9M113 ''Konkurs'' (; ; NATO reporting name AT-5 ''Spandrel'') is a Soviet SACLOS wire-guided anti-tank missile. A development of the 9K111 Fagot with greater firepower, the 9M113 Konkurs can use the same launchers and is very similar vis ...

and the

Bonfire A bonfire is a large and controlled outdoor fire, used for waste disposal or as part of a religious feast, such as Saint John's Eve. Etymology The earliest attestations date to the late 15th century, with the Catholicon Anglicum spelling i ...

underslung grenade launcher.

Products

During the early to mid-Soviet era, Tula Arms Plant produced a variety military rifles, including the

SKS The SKS () is a semi-automatic rifle designed by Soviet small arms designer Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov in the 1940s. The SKS was first produced in the Soviet Union but was later widely exported and manufactured by various nations. Its disting ...

, and AKM. It also produced the Nagant M1895 revolver. From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the factory produced the

AK-74 The AK-74 ( Russian: , tr. ''Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974 goda'', lit. 'Kalashnikov assault rifle model 1974') is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974 as a successor to the AKM. While primarily ...

, and went on to manufacture the

VSS Vintorez The AS Val "Shaft" (Russian: АС «Вал»; Автома́т Специа́льный, romanized: ''Avtomát Spetsiálny "Val"'', lit. 'Special Automatic') and VSS Vintorez "Thread Cutter" (Russian: ВСС «Винторе́з» Винто ...

AS Val The AS Val "Shaft" (Russian: АС «Вал»; Автома́т Специа́льный, Romanization of Russian, romanized: ''Avtomát Spetsiálny "Val"'', Literal translation, lit. 'Special Automatic') and VSS Vintorez "Thread Cutter" (Russi ...

OTs-14 Groza The OTs-14-4 "Groza-4" () is a Russian selective fire bullpup assault rifle chambered for the 9×39mm subsonic cartridge. It was developed in the 1990s at the TsKIB SOO (Central Design and Research Bureau of Sporting and Hunting Arms) in Tula, Ru ...

, and

TOZ rifle TOZ rifles are a family of .22 Long Rifle bolt-action cadet rifles manufactured by the Tula Arms Plant (Russian abbreviation TOZ stands for ''Tulsky Oruzheyny Zavod''). Most notably the TOZ-8, TOZ-17 and TOZ-78 which were used to train generations ...

weapons designed by

TsNIITochMash TsNIITochMash () is a Russian industrial design bureau which is a major designer and producer of weapons for the Russian military and MVD National Guard. The name is an initialism for Central Scientific - Research Institute for Precision Machin ...

. The plant also produces large quantities of small arms ammunition for the military as well as for commercial sale. The factory has also manufactured a number of pistols over the years such as the

Korovin pistol The Korovin pistol (Пистолет Коровина, Тульский Коровин (ТК), GAU Index 56-A-112) is regarded as the first Soviet semi-automatic pistol. History Sergey Korovin designed the first 7.65 mm caliber military pi ...

TT pistol The TT-30, commonly known simply as the Tokarev, is a Soviet-made semi-automatic pistol. It was developed during the late 1920s by Fedor Tokarev as a service pistol for the Soviet Armed Forces and was based on the earlier pistol designs of John M ...

Stechkin automatic pistol The Stechkin or APS (''Avtomaticheskiy Pistolet Stechkina'' = ''Автоматический Пистолет Стечкина'') is a Soviet selective fire machine pistol that is chambered in 9×18mm Makarov and 9×19mm Parabellum. History ...

SPP-1 underwater pistol The SPP-1 underwater pistol was made in the Soviet Union for use by Soviet frogmen as an underwater firearm.Popenker, Max R.SPP-1 underwater pistol ", '' world.guns.ru'', Retrieved 2010-04-05 It was developed in the late 1960s and accepted for ...

, and

MSP Groza silent pistol The MSP Groza silent pistol () is an over and under, double-barrel, derringer-type firearm designed in the Soviet Union in 1972. History The weapon was used operationally in Afghanistan and in Central America during the Cold War. An FMLN sup ...

Notable products

Knives *

NRS-2 The NRS-2 (''Нож Разведчика Стреляющий'', "Scout Firing Knife") (official GRAU index 6P25U) is a gun hybrid with a combination of a knife blade and a built-in single-shot shooting mechanism designed to fire a 7.62×41mm SP ...

Pistols * Nagant M1895 revolver *

* TKB-506 *

TT Pistol The TT-30, commonly known simply as the Tokarev, is a Soviet-made semi-automatic pistol. It was developed during the late 1920s by Fedor Tokarev as a service pistol for the Soviet Armed Forces and was based on the earlier pistol designs of John M ...

* TOZ-81 Shotguns * TOZ-25 * TOZ-28 * TOZ-34 * TOZ-54 * TOZ-63 * TOZ-66 * TOZ-87 *

TOZ-106 The TOZ-106 is a small, lightweight bolt-action shotgun produced and sold by Tula Arms Plant, Tulsky Oruzheiny Zavod.Н. Борумбей. Ружье с откидным прикладом // журнал «Охота и охотничье хозя ...

* TOZ-194 * TOZ-250 * MTs 21-12 Rifles *

APS underwater rifle The APS underwater assault rifle () is an underwater firearm designed by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s. It was adopted in 1975. Made by the Tula Arms Plant () in Russia, it is exported by Rosoboronexport. Under water, ordinary bullets a ...

* ASM-DT amphibious rifle *

SR-3 Vikhr The SR-3 Vikhr (''СР-3 Вихрь'', Russian for "whirlwind") is a Russian 9×39mm compact assault rifle. It was developed by A. D. Borisov, V. N. Levchenko and A. Tyshlykov at TsNIITochMash (Central Institute for Precision Machine Building) ...

* TKB-010 * TKB-059 * TKB-072 *

TKB-517 The TKB-517 () is an assault rifle designed by German Aleksandrovich Korobov. This rifle was externally similar to the AK-47, but based on the Blowback (firearms)#Lever-delayed, lever-delayed blowback mechanism invented by John Pedersen (arms des ...

References

External links

Official SiteTula Arsenal

Sales site
{{Coord, 54, 12, 02, N, 37, 36, 53.4, E, display=title Defence companies of the Soviet Union High Precision Systems Ammunition manufacturers Companies based in Tula Oblast 1712 establishments in Russia Russian brands Firearm manufacturers of Russia